FRITH (FRYTH), JOHN: English Reformer; b. at Westerham (19 m. s.e. of London) 1503; d.
at London July 4, 1533. He was educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge , (B.A., 1525),
but immediately after taking his degree he became a junior canon of Cardinal College (now
Christ Church), Oxford, his patron being Cardinal Wolsey. In the same year he met Tyndale in
London, and aided him in his translation of the New Testament. With several friends he was
imprisoned in his college for teaching the doctrines of the Reformers. He was released, however,
at the instance of Wolsey, on condition that he should remain within ten miles of Oxford, but he
went to Germany, spending the most of his time at Marburg. After living on the Continent about
four years, during which time he married, he returned to England and went to Reading. There he
was set in the stocks as a vagrant, but was released at the request of the schoolmaster of the town
and went to London, where Sir Thomas More, the lord chancellor, issued a warrant for his arrest
as a heretic. Frith sought concealment, but was seized at Milton Shore, Essex, as he was
attempting to escape to Holland, and was committed to the Tower. His imprisonment was not
rigid, however, and became still milder when Sir Thomas Audley became chancellor in 1533.
Meanwhile Frith had formulated his views on the sacrament, holding the following four points:
The doctrine of the sacrament is not an article of faith to be held under pain of damnation; the
natural body of Christ had the same qualities as those of all men, except that it was free from sin,
and it is therefore not ubiquitous; it is neither right nor necessary to take the word of Christ
literally, for it should be construed according to the analogy of the Bible; the sacrament should
be received according to the institution of Christ, and not according to the order in use. A tailor
named William Holt obtained a statement of these views from Frith by pretending to be his
friend, and gave a copy to More, who prepared a reply, of which the prisoner managed to secure
a written copy. He immediately wrote a refutation, but was attacked by one of the royal
chaplains in a sermon before the king. Henry VIII. ordered him to be examined, and he was
accordingly tried, refusing a proffered opportunity to escape. He again appeared before the
bishops of London, Winchester, and Chichester on June 20, 1533, but as he persisted in his
denial of transubstantiation and purgatory, Bishop Stokesley of London condemned him to die at
the stake as an obstinate heretic. Frith was therefore delivered to the secular arm and was
confined in Newgate until he was taken to Smithfield for execution.

John Frith was a prolific writer, his chief works being Fruitful Gatherings of Scripture (n.p.,
1529 [?]; a translation of the Loci of Patrick Hamilton); A Pistle to the Christen Reader; the
Revelation of Anti-Christ (Marburg, 1529; one of the first English attacks on Roman
Catholicism); A Disputation of Purgatory (Marburg [?] 1531 [?]); A Letter unto faithful
Followers of Christ's Gospel (n.p., 1532 [?]); A Mirror or Glass to Know thyself (1532 [?]); A
Mirror or Looking Glass wherein you may behold the Sacrament of Baptism described (London,
1533); and The Articles wherefore John Frith he died (1548). Frith's complete works were
edited, together with those of Tyndale and Barnes, by John Foxe at London in 1573. To him are
also ascribed the Vox Piscis (3 parts, London, 1626-27), containing three brief treatises,
including the Mirror or Glass to Know thyself, all said to have been found in a codfish in
Cambridge market in 1626; An Admonition or Warning that the faithful Christians in London
&c. may avoid God's Vengeance (Wittenberg, 1554) and the Testament of Master W. Tracie,
Esquire (Antwerp, 1535), Tyndale being a collaborator in the latter work.